PHILOSOPHICAL CONCEPT OF FREEDOM

Average persons, unschooled in philosophical reasoning, assume that when they make a choice they are free to choose from among various alternatives, the simplest of which are to assent or deny – to say yes or no – to some simple action.

Humans everywhere have what Immanuel Kant called “The Idea of Freedom” in his great work Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals. Kant based his “categorical imperatives” – without which morality and responsibility would be impossible – on the presumed fact that freedom is a universal idea. Now determinists generally deny both freedom and moral responsibility, while compatibilists generally assert a special form of free will compatible with determinism that allows them to defend responsibility. But note the curious fact that all the participants in the free will debates are in basic agreement with Kant that there exists an Idea of Freedom, even as some deny that there is something phenomenally and physically real corresponding to the Idea and others redefine the meaning of the term “free will“.

Very subtle logical arguments, common today among many philosophers, claim that this common sense notion of a “free will” is an illusion. This would seem to require that the burden of proof should be on the shoulders of those determinists, compatibilists, and others who deny the existence of free will in the ordinary common sense usage (that alternative possibilities for action not only exist but can be generated as needed by agents).

Philosophical Concept of Freedom

Freedom means self-determination, autonomy, and spontaneity of a rational subject, the absence of submissiveness and servility.

The concept of freedom may be conceived as an abstract and normative value of human action, or as a concrete experience of humans. The two perspectives can overlap, leading to mistakes regarding categories. Thus, different meanings of the word must be distinguished.

Freedom can mean an attribute of man and his will. Freedom can mean the condition for rights enabled by natural or positive law, but also of duty. However, an action is a personal experience, so carrying out a deliberate action cannot be summed up to rights and duties. These two levels of human existence – an attribute of man or the condition for enabled rights – are not necessarily compatible. One can establish that judicial liberties are in place, but reality (in our actions) and essence (in our conception) of our liberty are missing.

The existence of judicial law protecting freedom can be the object of a social and political investigation, while the metaphysical foundation of freedom and the second level mentioned above are more closely related to the philosophical question of freedom. Freedom can mean an absence of external restraints; in this case it signifies the opposite of slavery. The achievement of this form of freedom depends upon the environment; if I am in jail or even limited by a lack of resources, I am not free to do all that I might wish to do. Even natural laws restrict this form of freedom; no one is free to fly without wings (though we may or may not be free to attempt to do so). Freedom can also signify mastery over one’s inner life. In a play by Hans Sachs, the Greek philosopher Diogenes speaks to Alexander the Great, saying: You are my servants’ servant. Diogenes has conquered fear, lust, and anger; they are now his servants. Alexander must serve these masters; though he has conquered the world without, he has not yet mastered the world within. This kind of mastery is dependent upon no one and nothing other than ourselves. Richard Lovelace‘s poem echoes this experience:

Conclusion

The French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau asserted that the condition of freedom was inherent to humanity, an inevitable facet of the possession of a soul and sapience, with the implication that all social interactions subsequent to birth imply a loss of freedom, voluntarily or involuntarily.

Freedom has often been used a rallying cry for revolution or rebellion. For instance, the Biblerecords the story of Moses leading his people out of slavery, and into freedom. In his famous “I Have a Dream” speech Martin Luther King, Jr. quoted an old spiritual song sung by black American slaves: “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty we are free at last!”

Reference

Meyer, T. H. (2014). D.N. Dunlop, A Man of Our Time: A Biography. Forest Row, UK: Temple Lodge Publishing. p. 125.

Christoph Lindenberg, Rudolf Steiner: Eine Biographie, (Stuttgart: Verlag Freies Geistesleben 1997), pp. 212.

Rudolf Steiner, Die Philosophie der Freiheit: Grundzuege einer modernen Weltanschauung, (Berlin: Emil Felder, 1894).

Welburn, Andrew, Rudolf Steiner’s Philosophy and the Crisis of Contemporary Thought (2004), chapter 2.